Wednesday, 9 August 2017

How great a mercy this is

Take heed to yourselves, because there are many eyes upon
you, and there will be many to observe your falls. [[…]] As you take yourselves
for the lights of the churches, you may expect that men’s eyes will be upon
you. If other men may sin without observation, so cannot you. And you should
thankfully consider how great a mercy this is, that you have so many eyes to
watch over you, and so many ready to tell you of your faults; and thus have
greater helps than others, at least for restraining you from sin. Though they
may do it with a malicious mind, yet you have the advantage of it. God forbid
that we should prove so impudent as to do evil in the public view of all, and
to sin wilfully while the world is gazing on us! [[…]] Take heed therefore to
yourselves, and do your work as those that remember that the world looks on
them, and that with the quick-sighted eye of malice, ready to make the worst of
all, to find the smallest fault where it is, to aggravate it where they find
it, to divulge it and to take advantage of it to their own designs, and to make
faults where they cannot find them. How cautiously, then, should we walk before
so many ill-minded observers!—Richard Baxter, TheReformed Pastor, p75–76 (emphasis mine)